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Historic Cemeteries in Gent (Gent, Belgium)

Gent, a city of 230.000 inhabitants, is situated in the centre of Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. It has 18 cemeteries on a total surface of 570.000 m².

Two of them are beautiful 19th century cemeteries.The Western Cemetery is a landscaped garden inaugurated in 1873. In Gent it was the first neutral cemetery that offered a resting place to all convictions with a complete freedom of choice of the personal tombstone. This results in a big individual diversity integrated in one garden. Especially in the romantic 19th century people visited this cemetery for a Sunday-stroll and enjoyed the splendour of the monuments and the tranquillity of nature. The Campo Sancto of Sint-Amandsberg is a 19th century cemetery on a hill, which is really exceptional in our low countries. This cemetery dates from 1847 and is a very important burial place for Flemish writers, artists and local nobility.Nowadays the cemeteries in Gent offer different colourful remembrance-gardens with ceramic urns : a garden of herbs, a butterfly garden, a children’s garden and a rose garden. The cemeteries of Gent still welcome you for a Sunday-stroll.